IGA Coca-Cola Institute's New Interface Launches April 25 For Improved Training Experience

As The Great Resignation has demonstrated, employees want more from their jobs and they will go elsewhere to find what they're looking for if you don't offer it. The good news for independent grocery retailers? Employees want training and development to upgrade their skills, with 71 percent saying that learning new skills increases their job satisfaction and 61 percent saying they would stay at a company that invested in their training and development, according to a late 2021 Gallup poll.

With hundreds of free training courses available online from the IGA Coca-Cola Institute, independents can deliver the perk of ample training and development. And beginning Monday, April 25, 2022, students will have a brand new experience as the Institute launches its new, user-friendly interface.

"We're so excited to launch this new interface to our retail clients," says Learning Solutions Director Ana Velázquez. "With so many people seeking training and onboarding new employees, the new interface makes it easy to find what they need." From the newly organized course catalog to a user forum, new features abound throughout the site, which is now bilingual in English and Spanish. 

Velázquez took us for a tour of the new interface, and we have highlighted the new features below.

New Dashboard

Immediately upon logging in, users will notice the new dashboard, which displays all of their latest information:

• My Training, which shows courses and learning plans in progress
• Institute News, which includes their most recent newsletter and new courses available
• Welcome video from IGA Coca-Cola Institute President and CEO Dr. Paulo Goelzer
• Course catalog
• Help tutorials
• And more

Students can quickly pick up where they left off by resuming courses with the click of a button, or easily find the next course in their learning plan. And if they're craving more training, they can search the course catalog for their next new skill.

Learning Plans & Course Catalog

The course catalog is now divided into categories for a more simple way to browse. Need to satisfy compliance requirements but don't know where to start? Head to the Compliance section and review the subcategories like Safety, Security, Food Manager Certification Training, and more. Looking to expand your skillset from bakery to deli? Head to the Grocery Tracks section and find the department you need.

Unsure where to begin? The Institute has created learning plans for common positions, like cashiers and customer service, where the student will find all the classes needed to onboard.

Built-In Organizer

Even the busiest students can stay organized with a feature that corrals upcoming deadlines, assignments, and outstanding work that has yet to be started. 

User Forum

Social learning—the knowledge gained in social contexts through observation or direct instructions—is a powerful tool, especially in online learning environments like the IGA Coca-Cola Institute. The new interface incorporates this tactic by offering a user forum where students can ask questions and share planograms, best practices, and advice with their peers. "It's like social media combined with social learning, crowd sourcing, and sharing," Velázquez says. 

Each student is also assigned an expert who can answer questions. "It's a help desk directly available to the student," says Velázquez, adding that the experts are real people and content experts who work at the Institute—herself included.

Partner Content

The new interface isn't just a place to go for formal online education—any associate can log in regularly to see what's new, and that includes category insights from manufacturing partners and CPG companies. Get the latest category information and learn about new product launches in the Partner Content section. 

With all of these new features launching on Monday, April 25, Velázquez and the Institute team invite you to log in and look around. You can also see the details behind each feature in this document. Review the course catalog for new courses that might interest your team, and challenge each of them to log in and sign up for one new course by the end of the month. It encourages them to use the Institute as a free resource to broaden their skills, which aids retention. While you're at it, revisit your 2022 training and compliance checklist to ensure your team is up to date on all required trainings.